Highlights from last night’s dinner: sea urchin jelly, tai sashimi, and grilled chicken butts.
One of the things I loved about traveling to Japan from the west coast was the almost perfect transition between time zones. We’d fly in for around 8:00 p.m., have a late dinner, then be in bed by 10 p.m., sleep through the night, and wake up at 7:00 a.m. ready to go. Those extra three hours of added east coast time, however, make for a less than smooth sleep segue. I managed to fall asleep at a little before 10:00 p.m., woke up at 1:00 a.m. and had to take a melatonin pill, then slept through the night and woke up at a still dark 5:00 a.m. Akemi’s slept more fitfully and I expect her to probably take an afternoon nap while she’s getting her head massage today.
Anyway, the nice thing about being up so early is that it really allows you to pack in the day. After getting some work out of the way, we headed to Tsukiji, former home of the famed fish market, but still foodie central for early risers.
Today’s breakfast was comprised of: crab guts with sake, uni bun, sea urchin aburi, negitoro bowl, ikura and uni bowl, and grilled wagyu A5 sirloin.
Sadly, none of the dessert places were open as it was too early, so we headed back to the hotel to decompress, then headed to Omotesdando for our afternoon outing.
Soba lunch was very good – and interesting. Akemi ordered this six day old fish (I think it’s cured for six days) which she assumed I would positively hate. But I didn’t, much to her disappointment no doubt. Still, I knew she was looking forward to this particular dish (a New Year’s Eve tradition in her family) so I gave her half of mine.
After lunch, we walked Omotesando. checked out Kiddyland, at a matcha donut, had some chocolate, macarons, and a hot chocolate from La Maison du Chocolat, then headed over to ZAAC for head massages. One hour later, I was super sleepy and ready for bed.
But no rest for the wicked. Or hungry! We’re off to Sushi Taichi for dinner tonight!
Oh, hey, forgot to mention it but Akemi’s new PR card finally arrived. I received a text from Ivon after touching down in Japan informing me that – appropriately enough – the card arrived on the day we left. It’s been UPS’d and should arrive Friday, meaning Akemi won’t have to take the alternate route home: a 25 hour connection-studded flight to Buffalo followed up by a two hour car ride back to Toronto.
Meanwhile back on the home front…
These two appear to be behaving themselves. So far, so good…
Tomorrow = More breakfast mayhem! Butagumi! The Mori Art Museum! Tokyo Midtown! And mystery dinner!
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